The Bond of Four - First Tutorial Session

    After rushing up that steep hill (This is probably one of my most informal blog posts, but then again, how often am I actually ever formal?) and taking some time to catch my breath (Having just left my home 10 minutes before 9.30am)... I wounded up having a very progressive discussion with my lecturer and covered quite a few things during this first session (And as usual, went over the time limit, ehehe...), while she approved of my plan to make a short animation and a concept book to go along with it, she had quite a few tips and suggestions I was more than happy to take up on.

   Having finally shown Celles et Ceux des Cimes to her (Seeing as it is one of my biggest inspirations as to why I wanted to go in this direction in the first place), I was told that I could bring the animation duration down from 2 and a half minutes to 1 and a half instead. If there is time, I was also suggested to work on some animatics for scenes that will not be featured in the animation itself (Though, I am beginning to wonder if these particular scenes might require some voice acting in them... if so, professional voice acting wouldn't be required, right? Or should I go that extra mile and find some experienced folks that will be willing to do just that?).

   Aside from the content one would expect of any concept art book (Such as character, setting designs and storyboards), the book will further expand upon the story, character biographies and the world design of The Bond of Four, I was reminded to give my character designs from big, strong action poses, and now to stay too hung up on the concepts as compared to the animation itself. Seeing as I am taking a lot of influences from eastern cultures, the colour palettes should also be driven by them, and so quite a bit of research into these cultures is required (Such as the symbolism as to why certain colours are used in some of their costumes).

   Speaking of the eastern cultures that I will be looking into, I was once again told to narrow it down a little more instead of attempting to squeeze zillions of asian cultures all into one design, something that I am actually pretty relieved about being told to do, actually. Still, it wouldn't hurt to include some references from a few others and subtly incorporate them into my character design later on, if it works that is.

   The last bit of advice that I was given before I was chased out was to attempt to follow the same practice as Cartoon Saloon and develop concept art boards that closely (If not almost exactly) present what a final frame would look like in the animated trailer itself. And... just be smart and learn how to utilise whatever concepts I have into the animation itself (As well as reuse a few things such as tree designs when possible).

  

   And oh... try to use a back up drive during this entire project (Especially since this project is surely going to grow to ginormous proportions as I progress over the next few months, my poor laptop), and especially if I am intent on using one of the college's Cintiqs.

   AND OH! Other inspirations I had wanted to include to the bibliography and moodboards were Samurai Jack, Secret of Mana, Bee and Puppycat and Steven Universe (I am just going to list them down here for the time being until I get the chance to add them to the list).

   ... And also take a refresher course on After Effects so I can fully utilise it for my animation.

The Bond of Four - Moodboards

   I honestly should have started way earlier on my mood boards for my COP3 project (Which I had only just put together earlier this week), and I am certainly not making the same mistake again for this module. These were the mood boards I quickly put together for my first Extended Practice tutorial session to give my lecturer an idea on how exactly I am visualising this entire concept.

   This first board focuses mainly on the overall aesthetic of the project,
it is obvious that this project will be much more colourful as compared to Lurk,
and will have a very Asian flavour to it (Despite being a mainly fantasy based world
that I hope to build from scratch, so this also means researching into more fantasy
based works as well, which should include fairytales, myths, and so on). 

This one focuses more on a series of traditional costumes from various ethnic groups,
as seen from my old illustrations, a lot of inspiration and influences were actually taken from
Chinese, Japanese, Indian and Peranakan costumes. I attempted to include some more
variety this time round.

Some ideas on landscapes once I get started on designing the universe itself.

And here are my main inspirations and influences in terms of... everything.
The art and colour style, the character and costume designs, the narrative, etc.
Some of these examples have been applied when I had first worked on Bond of Four
all those years back, and now a few new inspirations have been added to this collection.

The Bond of Four - Rationale

Respondent: Rebecca Wong Si-Lin_253249 Submitted on: Tuesday, 1 December 2015, 10:58 AM

RATIONALE

1. Where are you documenting the development of Extended Practice online?

   While everything will be documented through my Studio Practice blog, I have considered creating a Tumblr blog for it as well, especially if this will be a series that I will be able to continue and expand upon even after this module as ended.

2. Broadly speaking what are you interested in exploring and why?

   
While the project is highly fantasy based, I will be looking into a variety of ethnic cultures to create a diverse world that would strongly portray the message of Racial Harmony that Singapore have been so strong about since it became an independent country.

3. What you want to do during this module? Be as specific as you can at this moment in time.

If you plan on working on multiple briefs to demonstrate your practice, identify clearly each brief.

What 

   For my extended practice, I will be aiming to produce a short animation (Of 2 minute duration) and a concept art book (Consisting of character, prop and setting designs, storyboards of various scenarios (Scenes that will be featured in the animation short and concepts) and a look into the story’s universe itself as well as the characters’ relationship with one another) to go along with it.

   Titled “The Bond of Four”, the story takes place in a fantasy-based world where four siblings are separated from one another at a very young age, only to reunite with one another several years later, one now a humble scholar, one a daring pickpocket, one an assassin to a wealthy king and another a crown prince. And soon they will realize that it is fate that has brought them back together as a war will soon wage between two kingdoms. 

Why 

  This project was initially presented as a concept for a stage play, while it was not necessarily stated that the universe the story would be a non-fictional one, the designs were heavily based on a variety of Asian cultures and religions (Such as Chinese, Malaysian, Peranakan and Japanese). In the end, this series was created as a way to show further appreciation for not just Asia’s wide variation of colorful cultures, but to also promote racial harmony. 

Who

   Seeing as this series had originally been designed as a booklet that would be handed out to those that would be viewing this hypothetical play, this was originally aimed at teenagers and adults (When considering the age groups that would possibly be interested in attending such plays). Again, seeing as this had been created to promote racial harmony, the series is aimed at roughly the same target audience, but can now be further extended seeing as it is presented in a more reachable form of media.

How

    In terms of my research, aside from looking into a number of inspirations (Which will include movies, shows, video games, comic books and music) for my animation, I will also be referring to various animation, concept and fashion books.

   The concepts will allow me the chance to play around with both traditional and digital mediums, especially when experimenting with an art style that would work for the overall series.

   The animation itself will be worked on in Adobe Photoshop (Though I hope to perhaps make some attempts with Flash and TV Paint Animation if I am able to better familiarize myself with either or both over the next few months) and will be touched up on in Adobe After Effects

   Music and sound for the animation short will be composed by a collaborator whom I have worked with on a few other projects in the past.

When

   While the module’s final deadline is on the 6^th of May 2016, there are several other deadlines for presentations and critique sessions. A gantt chart will also be made so that I will be able to stay on track over the next few months and efficiently progress and produce the work needed for the final product.

4. Explain how this will be developing your Specialist Practice?

   Such a major project will also be a huge addition to my portfolio, which will be required by the time this module ends. I wish to explore into all the areas (Visual Development, Character Design, Storyboarding, Scriptwriting and Animating) that I hold a deep interest in, and by the end of this module, I should be able to confirm which areas in particular that I think I will work better in and should focus more on.

5. What do you need and by When?

Perhaps a refresher on Flash might help, and if anyone has had experience with TV Paint, receiving assistance from someone that has used it before would be beneficial. An available Cintiq would also be of great help.

6. Will you be working on a group project or brief?

( If YES explain )

   ... No.

7. Are there any stakeholders in your project?

If YES, explain who they are and what their responsibilities are? - This is essential if you've got a Live Brief from a client

   At the present moment, I have definitely confirmed that I will be collaborating with an ex-Leeds College of Music student for the music and sound of my animation.

8. What, where and when do you need to research. Begin to identify and artists, practitioners, companies or organisations that you will need to talk to. This could include getting to speak to people at conferences, events and other organisations. 

   I might be visiting a few studios over this period, and during then, I can hopefully show some progress for this project and receive some proper advice on how to further my concept art and/or storyboards before the deadline.

9. Please identify at least 6 books, periodicals, websites or other media that may be informing your rationale. Please use Harvard referencing. 

Books

1.     DiMartino, M, D. and Konietzko, B. (2010). Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Art of the Animated Series,US: Dark Horse.

2.     Louis, W. (2015). Super Turbo Atomic Ninja Rabbit Groundworks, UK: The Line.

Games

1.     Capcom. (2002) Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny. [DISC] Playstation 2. Osaka: Capcom

2.     Capcom. (2006) Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams. [DISC] Playstation 2. Osaka: Capcom

3.     Clover Studio. (2006) Okami. [DISC] Playstation 2. Osaka: Capcom.

4.     Game Republic. (2005) Genji: Dawn of the Samurai. [DISC] Playstation 2. Tokyo: Sony Computer Entertainment.

5.     Heart Machine. (2015) Hyper Light Drifter. [ONLINE DOWNLOAD] Kickstarter. California: Heart Machine.

6.     Ignition Tokyo. (2011) El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron. [DISC] Playstation 3. UK: UTV Ignition Entertainment.

7.     Level-5. (2010) Ni no Kuni: Dominion of the Dark Djinn. [GAME CARD] Nintendo DS. Fukuoka: Level-5.

8.     Omega Force. (2004) Samurai Warriors 4. [DISC] Playstation 4. Tecmo Koei.

9.     SEGA AM2. (2000) Shenmue. [DISC] Dreamcast. Tokyo: Sega.

10.   Square. (2000) Legend of Mana. [DISC] Playstation. North America: Square Electronic Arts.

11.   Square. (2001) Final Fantasy X. [DISC] Playstation 2. North America: Square Electronic Arts.

12.   Square Enix. (2003) Final Fantasy XII. [DISC] Playstation 2. Paris: Ubisoft.

13.   Ubisoft Montreal. (2014) Child of Light. [DISC] Playstation 3. Paris: Ubisoft.

14.   Tecmo Koei. (2012) Pokemon Conquest. [GAME CARD] Nintendo DS. Tokyo: The Pokemon Company.

15.   Tobyfox. (2015) Undertale. [ONLINE DOWNLOAD] Microsoft Windows. US: Tobyfox.

Movies and Shows

1.     The Book of Life (2014) Directed by Jorge R. Gutierrez [Film]. US: 20th Century Fox.

2.     Children Who Chase Lost Voices (2011) Directed by Makoto Shinkai [Film]. Japan: Media Factory.

3.     Kung Fu Panda (2008) Directed by John Stevenson and Mark Osborne [Film]. US: Paramount Pictures.

4.     Kung Fu Panda (2011) Directed by Jennifer Yuh Nelson [Film]. US: Paramount Pictures.

5.     Millienium Actress (2001) Directed by Satoshi Kon [Film]. Japan: The Klockworx Co., Ltd.

6.     The Secret of Kells (2009) Directed by Tomm Moore and Nora Twomey [Film]. UK: StudioCanal.

7.     Song of the Sea (2013) Directed by Tomm Moore [Film]. Ireland: StudioCanal.

8.     Spirited Away (2001) Directed by Hayao Miyazaki [Film]. Japan: Toho.

9.     The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (2013) Directed by Isao Takahata [Film]. Japan: Toho.

The Bond of Four - Introduction

Compilation of all the illustrations that I had produced for my old end of year
project.

   Much like my Context in Practice 3 project, I will be working and expanding upon an old project of mine back from my old art academy end year project. 

   Titled the Bond of Four (Though, who knows, I might actually change the title over the next few months as I work on it), the story focuses on four siblings whom are separated from one another at a very young age during a freak storm accident, everything was lost during that fateful night, and that included their little village and even their parents. Fast forwarding to a number of years later, two of these siblings happen to chance upon one other by fate (With one trying to pickpocket the other), only to find themselves going on an adventure to find their two other siblings, whom are about to be caught up in a particularly large political affair between two kingdoms.

   Will the siblings be able to reunite in time before a war is waged? Only time will tell.

First Day Extended Practice Briefing

• Deadline: the 6th of May 2016, 2pm
• To show what you can do, what y0u can make, what skills you have acquired over the past two years
• A seamless integration of theory and practice
• There is a reason for what you make
• Working in a group or collaborating is optional
• 60 Credit Module (Half a year's worth of study)
• Opportunity to show what you specialise in
• Develop a substantial body of work over the module (Which must be properly negotiated with lecturers)
• 5oo Word Rationale
• Use pro-forma and submit to eStudio by 2nd December 2015, 2pm
• Come in on 3rd December 2015 for Individual Tutorial, Sign Up slots available on eStudio again
• Label with OUAN603, Rationale on blog
• Deliverables: Rationale, PPT/PDF Presentation
• To be uploaded to eStudio by 9.30am
• Statement of Intent
• Polish up your rationale based on feedback received
• What is the project/brief?
• Who is the audience?
• What are you producing? A short animation? A portfolio of work?
• This will then been presented to your peers for feedback
• Research and Development Portfolio
• Will be done through blogging
• Will typically contain posts that explore industry practice, prototyping, material and process investigation, script/storyboarding development
• Detailing how you plan to take the project forward
• It should also contain research into any theories or approaches to your practice that you are considering 
• The summary will be submitted to the programme administrator
• Realisation and Presentation
• Pay close attention to Statement of Intent
• Document development on blog again
• Technical development, detailed evidence of planning and organisation
• Formal presentation at the end as a final critique
• Critical Evaluation (1000 Words)

Food for Thought - Production - Marketing Materials

I came in early today in hopes of printing out all the DVD Covers, and booklets for Cara, Anna and I, little did I know that I would be spending the next hour or so wasting quite a bit of money attempting to print out the DVD covers in a suitable size for the casing. Strangely enough, Cara's original file turned out a little too smile, and so I made numerous attempts in trying to fix it, despite what seemed like a proper template, the damn thing still wouldn't fit...  until what was possibly the 20th attempt did it manage to fill out the casing decently, it wasn't perfect, but at least it is better than the very first one I had printed out.

The booklets weren't too troublesome at least, especially after my experience with printing my project report for Responsive, the ordering of the pages was easily done. I did do a few tiny tweaks based on Annabeth's feedback (That being the removal of the black border on the back page), and so printed them out a second time.

Below you will see all the failed attempts on the right, and one the left, you will see what I deemed to be alright enough for submission.

At least the poster shouldn't be too much of a hassle to print out...

Food for Thought - Distribution - Animation Progress 5

So I helped out at the last minute on a few more things, seeing that there was no way that Anna and Cara could finish cleaning and colouring everything, I spent the entire night trying to at least neaten the last 9 files that they have yet to work on, so hopefully these slightly neater sketches can still be used for the animation. Seeing that Cara was already working so hard to edit the animation as well as work on the promotional items, I then helped to colour at least one scene as seen below.

As I coloured the cleaned up lines, I was however a little saddened to find out that the clean up took away quite a bit of the exaggeration that was in the original sketches I did... I will take note of this for future projects however. I also actually wanted to fix up some of their expressions in the clean up versions, but it was going to be a little complicated trying to ask them to pass me their files just so I can fix the eyes or mouth, I could probably ask about it another time if we are still interesting in submitting this for competition.

Food for Thought - Sort of an Evaluation

This has been an absolute frenzy of an experience, for this module, I took up the tasks of researching into most areas (Such as the subject matter itself, sources of inspiration, title cards and sequences, animation and visual styles, etc.), scriptwriting, a little directing (Such as helping Cara out with the storyboards since it went through so many changes based on my vision and figuring out the audio itself), organising (Such as putting together the gantt chart), background designing and animating. I do not think I multitasked as aggressively as I did for this module.

Despite how incredibly heavy the workload and the little amount of time we had left, I still however enjoyed everything I did throughout, I have also gained a newfound appreciation for background designing and directing, and have also grown even more appreciative of other areas such as scriptwriting, voice acting, and of course animating.

Aside from that however, despite how the odds were against us most of the time (Due to unforeseen circumstances), I think my first time working with a group has been a rather enlightening experience. I do not regret quickly taking action when it came to putting together my team, especially as they have been absolutely amazing to work with this entire time. And I do believe that we will be happy to work with each other again in the future once this project has been completed.

I wish I had been a little more involved during the final stages of this project, I especially felt awful leaving most of the editting to one of my teammates. But then again, I just feel the need to be involved in almost everything, despite how it makes sense for each of us to focus more on our own tasks.

From the very beginning, I had immediately wanted to incoporate our interests into this project, and that was a silly, fun, back to basics and overall entertaining 2D animation that catered to a younger audience. And based on the fact that a majority of the animated documentaries we have seen after of a rather depressing nature, this felt like the perfect opportunity to work on something that was not just educational, but also fun and lighthearted.

It is always said that our works should invoke our audience in some way or form, to make them think about what they have just seen, and true be told, it always seemed to me that only shocking, depressing or disturbing works are used to create such a response out of the audience... But I also believed that, in this day and age, that more works should be created for people that simply want to come back to watch something that would entertain them, but will simply make them feel good, perhaps even comforted, especially after a long tiring day from school or work. It is understandable to make people think about certain subject matters, but I think it is just as important to make the people in the world feel entertained and contented to forget about their own troubles, if not for a brief moment.

I was glad that my team and I could work on something that was meant for a younger audience, something that could perhaps entertain them as much as cartoons from the 80s and 90s did for me. I still hope to work on similar animations in the future, and hopefully my old teammates will be willing to join me when I do so.

Food for Thought - Area of Process

There were many areas that I actually found myself enjoying throughout this experience. While my memory is rather fuzzy, I was surprised to realise just how much I enjoyed designing backgrounds (Especially since I have always been so much more focused on character designs), I feel that this could be start of something for me and I hope to improve on my background designs as I go along (As I was still struggling to fix up one of my backgrounds so that they could be made to repeat smoothly in After Effects).

While a considerably stressful aspect, I still find animating to be another enjoyable aspect, there is just never enough time to carefully work on them however, and so I find myself rushing most of the time. Still, I actually enjoyed working on certain scenes in the past few days, and especially learnt how surprisingly fun it was to do lip syncing (Making dope sheets is a whole other story however... so bless Cara for helping me out with that), as well as animate expressions (Which I can still improve so much more on). 

I still of course have a long way to go when it comes successfully applying the 12 major principles of Animation, I know this particularly animation could be better exaggerated in some scenes, but again, I was just really aiming to finish sketching all the key scenes so that we have a decent amount of new material to show for the screening tomorrow.

While I did not really get the chance to get involved in the audio editing process near the end, I did enjoy doing a rough recording for the very first animatic that we made for our pitch. And I was glad that I had the opportunity to sing for another group's project. While I maybe an amateur voice actor, I still hope to get more opportunities for this area.

You might find it surprising that me, of all people, also enjoyed writing the script for this project, after the first few brainstorming sessions I had with Anna and Cara, it did not take long to write a script that all of us actually found decent enough to be used for an animation. And I absolutely had a blast figuring out what jokes to put in and where to place them. Considering that this is actually a narrative aspect of animation, I do suppose that it is not all that surprising how much I enjoyed it...

True be told, I absolutely enjoyed everything that I did for this module, even those last minute tasks I took over for others.

Food for Thought - Production Process

What I have learnt from most recent visiting professionals is just how incredibly important communication is when working alongside others so that works can be produced a little more efficiently. That, and just how much research is required even before the design process commences.

For the majority of this module, I have tried organise our workload to the best of my ability and to make sure that I was able to stay in contact with my teammates no matter where we were (So that I could keep check on their progress and to make sure that they were not too stressed out). While things have definitely changed and did not go at all according to plan, I felt that drafting up a rough gantt chart for our group after the first pitch gave us a little more guidance in finishing up what needed to be done, instead of blindly working on whatever came to mind first, if this was so, chances are that we might have finished as much work as we have been able to now.

As they worked on storyboards and character sheets during the earlier part of our Easter break, in the meantime, aside from my own design works (Which was backgrounds at the time), I made sure to complete the preparations for some of the behind the scenes aspects of the animation, particularly the audio and music, so that we needn't worry about it later on (I try my absolute hardest to remain efficient and to not get things done at the very last minute, especially when working with others).

Throughout this experience, I felt that all three of us have been incredibly understanding, courteous and accommodating of one another, while also making sure that we would actually listen to one another's opinions when it came to working on the animation itself. While it might appear that I have merely chosen my teammates due to our chemistry with one another, from the beginning, I chose them based on their skills and due to the fact that we shared incredibly similar interests.

Due to the lack of time, there was only so much that we could do when it came to the animation, but considering the fact that we were all working back in our own accommodations and communicating with each other mainly through Dropbox and Facebook for these last few days, I still felt that we managed to do an awful lot.

If we had been given enough time, I felt that my team and I could really dish out something amazing... not that what we presently have isn't already lovely.

Food for Thought - Distribution - Booklet

After I had finished sketching all the key animations, I went to see what else I could do to aid my teammates as the deadline drew nearer, and while Cara and Anna worked hard on the other promotional items, I was asked to quickly design up a simple little booklet to go with the DVD cover, where some of our best developmental work could  be shown.

And seeing that I have pretty much saved most of the works that we shared with one another through Facebook and Tumblr, it didn't take too long to quickly design up something. There wasn't any need for any text either aside from a few headings and the page numbers, so I only needed to focus on the layouts of the images as well as figure out a simple little decorative element that could be added to each page (I decided to use a black version of the border that has been used for our title cards and presentations).

Unfortunately, I did not have any of the fonts that Cara had used for the DVD cover and biography page, and so, at least for title, I simply saved a png of the title from the DVD cover file and used that for the cover of the booklet. I tried finding a close enough font for the rest that was similar enough to the font used for the body text in the biography page.

Again, kept it really simple.

The only changes I made was for Cara's page spread, the colours turned out strange, so I was given some new images to replace them, I also had to crop up most of the template as I felt that the school template would ruin the overall look of the booklet.

Food for Thought - Production - Animation Progress 4

So I was a ninny and realised that mov files would be too big to upload up here, but I believe these two will be enough to show how the lip syncing animation went, I will however try to include some more scenes on my submission disc.

I managed to finish sketching all the key scenes this morning (I had to sadly exclude the hop and spin scene due to its complexity and its need for lip syncing as well, but I believe we can still connect the other two scenes together smoothly without it), and as you can see here, there are numerous work files on both my hard disk and dropbox account. They have all also been ordered properly for our reference (And for my OCD) so that it would easier to put them all together later on as one animation.

Now if you will excuse me, I still have other tasks to attend to, despite how badly destroyed my hand by now...

Food for Thought - Production - Animation Progress 3

As mentioned in the previous animation progress post, I soon enough went back to finishing up this scene, there were a lot of subtle and jerky animations I added in aside from the lip syncing, such as Cake Man's sudden movements and Johnny's own startled reaction when he suddenly cuts him off. 

There were some complications with the posing of Cake Man, as I felt that he didn't have anywhere to lean his arms over based on Anna's cart design, and so I made do with him bending rather unnaturally over like some snake. I will try to fix this scene before we submit it in for competitions if it bothers anyone when watching it.

I simply did the icing animation, Anna will be drawing the hand and icing bag while Cara will animate it to follow the motions of my animation on After Effects. I made sure to give a few pauses in between, especially when the details of the train are added in.

Scenes such as this focused more on the transitions of facial expressions, they were simple to do and also quite fun. Hopefully I will have the confidence to animate more complex expression in the future. I still can't say the same for my turning animations however, as you notice how warp they tend to get sometimes...

The running cycle took awhile to figure out, especially since I had trouble getting use to drawing Johnny's incredibly slender body shape (If you noticed in the original walking cycle, I gave him a much more bean shaped torso), as well as the placement of his arms. The original showed them much higher in the air, but when I started drawing in the details, they just looked really off to me, and so I had to reposition them.

The panting animation wasn't too bad... it could be better, but it will have to do for now, I made sure to label what frames to duplicate, so that Anna didn't have to clean up 4 of the same frames and waste time doing so.

I thought that this would turn out horribly, and while it could probably use a bit more squash and stretch (Mainly squash), I think this scene turned out pretty well, I am also once again please with how his expressions turned out.

This was probably one of my better turning animations, his head doesn't horribly warp like it normally does in the other sketches. Also I realise I will never draw his glasses exactly as how they should be in Anna's references...

I reused the first walk cycle and simply changed his expression. I do hope however that Anna or Cara made the necessary changes to the first walk cycle, as he is humming in that scene, his mouth should be closed and not open. And since I don't have the fully coloured file for that animation, this matter is all up to them.

I was trying to connect together as many scenes as possible for this one, and it definitely took a little while to finish up, seeing as there was quite a bit of motion going on when compared to the other scenes.

Seeing that Johnny was going to stay pretty still throughout these time travelling segments, we all agreed to add some basic animation for each setting. Thanks to Cara, each baker would do something differently and in a way would connect to one another (Eg, baking in th Egyptian setting, taking out the baked goods in the Medieval settings, and finally setting the baked goods onto the table).

Fire glow animation.

Baker and smoke animation.